Shaker Aamer, the last Briton held in the American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is being released, the British foreign secretary said Friday.
According to the London-based human rights group Reprieve, Aamer was cleared for release in 2007.
However, Reprieve said, the release process “required no fewer than six U.S. government agencies to agree that he posed no threat to the U.S. or its allies.” So Aamer spent another eight years in Guantanamo.
Allegation of torture
Aamer is a Saudi national who is a permanent resident of Britain. He is married to a British woman, and his children live in Britain.
He was alleged to have led a Taliban unit in Afghanistan, and he was detained there in 2001.
Aamer, for his part, alleges that he was tortured at the American prison camp.
